Graiguenamanagh’s Labour councillor, Ann Phelan, is heading to France this week for a trip that she hopes will have benefits for her hometown of Graiguenamanagh.
Cllr Phelan is part of a group of locals who will spend three days in Coulommiers, a town in Brie, the region in France most famous for its cheese.
Coulommiers has strong links with Graiguenamanagh thanks to St Fiachra and to families living in the region who can trace their roots to Ireland from the time of the Wild Geese.
The people to travel from Graiguenamanagh are members of the Friends of St Fiachra group. They include local historians and business people who see benefit in closer relations with Coulommiers for both towns. The group is made up of Philip Cushen of Cushendale Woollenmills, Colm and Mary Walsh and David Flynn of the Historical Society and Robert and Fran Drury who run local B & B. Also travelling are Ray Talbot and Christopher and Angela Bolger.
For the past five years people from the two towns have visited each other and both sides now feel that a closer relationship would be mutually beneficial. Last summer Coulommier’s deputy mayor said on a visit to Graiguenamanagh that she hoped the two areas would be twinned.
This latest visit to France is aimed at cementing a friendship pact, while a formal proposal to Kilkenny County Council on twinning the towns is being considered.
One of the organisers of an annual festival there in honour of St Fiachra has the surname Fahy. In France St Fiachra is known as the patron saint of gardeners and Christophe Fahy is also secretary of the Societe d'Horticulture et de Sciences Nature.
In Graiguenamanagh St Fiachra is celebrated with a Mass at Ullard on February 8 and in Coulommiers, where he is also the patron saint of taxi drivers, he is celebrated on August 30.
